From Education to Edutainment?

Are we walking away from the three R's and going from the pan into the fire?

Change in education is inevitable, but what do we want it to change to?

I am very concerned that all of this online schooling, which has its benefits, is becoming EDUTAINMENT.

This is where I’m coming from: I’m currently between jobs and possibly careers. I taught 6th grade multiple subject (reading, writing, math, health, art, PE, character development) for 4 years before the school made me sick. It was mostly the mold in the carpet, but also the lack of communication and freedom to design the classroom for more success and less stress on me and my students. I think the biggest issue was that there were no consequences for the highly dysfunctional kids (that disrupted everyone’s learning, not just their own) that needed the most help; but 6 hours a day at school was not going to change the 11 years of neglect, inadequate, or even zero parenting. Some kids had problems too big for even a school to handle and required a family intervention.

Now, I’m looking into other ways to continue teaching because that is what I love to do. I’ve been looking into a lot of platforms such as Outschool.com (age 3 to18) and Zipschool.com (age 4-9). What concerns me is that they don’t want teachers, the want entertainers like Bill Nye the science guy. Does he really teach your kids science or just get them excited about science? Real science requires a lot of paying attention to detail, enormous amounts of reading and writing, creativity, collaboration and independence. I’m wondering what will be lost if there is no one teaching the foundations for learning- The 3 R’s.

I see the education system as a microcosm of adult hood. If kids only learn what is interesting to them, then how will they have the capacity to do the adult things, we might not like doing, but that need to be done? For example, raising children requires a lot of un-entertaining skills- balancing the budget, being resourceful, cleaning up bodily fluids, being sleep deprived, compromise, perseverance, faith that you will survive the teen years.

When a child learns to write cursive, it is so much more than learning to communicate in a written language. It is also about believing in oneself to learn something new, being open to feedback by others ( teacher) for growth (mirrored through the perfecting of the letters process over many months), determination to get better at a skill, reflection ( how can I make my letters more legible), and the opportunity to look back and see that you are capable.

Personally, I don’t want someone that only learns by being entertained to do my taxes, or operate on my knee. I’m okay if the grocery clerk has an education by entertainment degree and can’t count my change back, because I can do that myself. In the long run, this extreme swing to entertain kids instead of educate them is not going to work either. Somewhere is the answer.

I hope you will post your thoughts about where education should go in the next 5 years by posting below.